Blast a Hole in the Field

 By JOracle
March 29, 2005
www.specialopspaintball.com

The squad of six enemy players slipped across “No-man’s Land” and plunged into the oaks and shrubs surrounding our flag base. As team “Sapper,” I watched them from the back boundary, and prayed that the landmines I had laid earlier in the game
would work.

I could see their outlines flickering through the gaps in the trees as they crept up on our flag. We had left a very sparse defense and there was no chance that we’d hold these guys off with gunfire.

Suddenly, the player on point barked in surprise and outrage. He was quickly joined by a chorus of disappointed moans and muffled swearwords from his teammates. The leaves of the forest hissed as a brief shower of paint rained down around the squad.

 In the confusion, I belly crawled forward and dispatched the last of their squad with a few rounds.

The paint landmine had work gloriously, as it had many times before. I crouched in the brush as I watched the six tromp dejectedly toward the “dead-man zone” with speckles of orange paint covering their facemasks.

Unfortunately, many “exotic” paintball devices don’t work in actual play. Believe it or not, paint landmines are an interesting exception – if used correctly. Once the opposition realizes that you’re setting landmines, the mines become wickedly effective “area denial” devices that slow the enemy’s progress everywhere on the field.

The biggest question about paint mines isn’t how to place them, but when. During a walk-on, weekend game, when do you put your mines in play? One possibility is to place the mines deep in your own team’s territory and then leave them in place for when the teams switch sides. However, you never know if the teams will remain the same and without you close by, it’s very possible that anyone tripping your mine will just pretend it never happened.

A better way to place mines is to use them to reinforce your team’s plan. Since one of the most reliable walk-on plans is the “Strong-side,” where your team pushes one side and leaves the other side lightly defended, landmines become very useful in slowing or stopping an enemy advance on the weak side. Winning in paintball is so often about timing (who takes the enemy flag station first), that bogging down a large enemy force is often the key to victory.

At the whistle, the Sapper should rush forward on the weak side, quickly place his mines across likely trails, and then fall back behind the minefield to watch. Make sure your team doesn’t send a squad up ahead of the minefield. Array any defensive force behind the minefield so that the opposition hits the mines first. Place your weak-side defenders behind the minefield so that your mines can do their work on the opposition before you are forced to engage with your paint markers.

Another tactic is to mine all approaches to the flag station. Using mines in tight defense gives you plenty of time to place the mines, but if the enemy never makes it that far before the whistle blows, you may have set up your minefield for nothing. Still, if you’re leaving a very weak side, mining and defending your flag station can buy your offensive squad a lot of time to overrun the enemy flag.

To learn more about paintball landmines, visit www.specialopspaintball.com.

Paintball games become monotonous when you use the same plan on the same field over and over again. By using exotic weaponry such as paint mines, you can really shake things up.