CHAPTER 4
GAMES LARGE
AND
GAMES SMALL
The Big Game
Everyone has heard of “The Big Game.” It’s 24 hours of fun with field generals and objectives and tanks and land mines and sometimes a huge player party the night before the event kicks off. To end the game on Sunday, sponsors will sometimes organize one final mass battle. Just you and 1000 of your closest friends in a massive one-hour shoot off. Wow!
Often a Big Game is just that, a long game of capture-the-flag with some structural elements of a scenario game thrown in (a castle or fort, for example, is a popular theme). Lots of action. Lots of paint in the air. Lots of players and a simple, easy-to-follow plot line. “Keep it simple, keep it fun and keep it moving” is the motivating principle behind a Big Game.
Because Big Games bring hundreds of players together, they are often organized in approximately the same manner as a scenario game without space aliens or communist spies or magicians. In a well-organized game, teams are divided into companies and action squads. Assignments are called in to the team’s commander or general and you win or lose depending on how many assignments your team accomplishes. Big Games are played over as much as 26 hours; people begin arriving on Friday, usually camp out Friday and Saturday nights (if they don’t have a Saturday night mission), and then head home on Sunday afternoon.
Big Games use almost all of the formats of small capture-the-flag games with several interesting twists:
1. Elimination is not final. You simply go to a time out location or “dead zone” and wait for the buzzer to resurrect you and send you back in the game. Usually the buzzer gets this done every half hour, so you will not have to sit twiddling your thumbs for very long. After all, there’s only so much goggle cleaning and gun squeegeeing you want to do when there’s real action just out the door!
2. Everyone relies somewhat on an Honor System to make the game work. When your squad is ambushed at night or there is a frenzy of activity, the referee may not always know and be able to rule on who gets hit and who does not. Everyone relies on each other to fess up and count themselves out when they get hit. After all, you will only be on the bench for half an hour. It’s not like you must sit out the rest of the game.
3. Typically, field owners will have hundreds or even thousands of dollars of door prizes to give away. At most scheduled breaks in the action – dinner and breakfast – there will be drawings and opportunities to win free stuff like shirts, paintballs and even donated markers .
4. The cost of a Big Game is twice what playing a day of recreational games normally runs. Figure you’ll spend $50 for registration and maybe another $90 for a case of paint. That’s expensive, but the field owner has certainly hired extra referees , solicited food vendors, purchased extra field insurance, bought a permit from the county and has medics (real medics, not role-players) on hand because some poor schmoe always gets his head banged or twists an ankle in the dark.
Blue team’s bunker is strategically placed to protect their headquarters in this big game. The red team will have to advance uphill on open ground in a firestorm of paint.
While The Big Game is the occasional star attraction, most playing fields regularly offer a variety of short, objective-based games. Having different types of games keeps you from becoming bored with doing the same thing time after time. Here is a sample of some of the games offered. It’s natural that you are going to enjoy some of them more than others. If you get asked to defend the flag bunker and you just hate the fact you can’t move around and be the aggressor, just hang on anyway and do your best. Games usually only last 10 minutes and there are probably players on your team who absolutely live to play a defensive game. Learn the techniques to win in every situation and you are well on your way to joining the elite ranks of paintball.
OPEN-FIELD GAMES
Let’s talk about recreational paintball here, not professional or tournament play. Speedball and hyperball are sort of a cross between the most serious paintball play and simply filling the air with paint.
According to Steve Cranmer in New Jersey, who has played for practically 20 years and has an arsenal of paintball markers (“If we’re ever attacked by paintball-playing space aliens,” Steve says, “they’re going to be in trouble at my place.”), true speedball is played on a soccer-size field. Both halves are laid out with the exact same pattern of obstacles and bunkers. Team flags are placed at the opposite ends of the field, next to the starting gate for the opposition. The idea is that at the whistle, squads sprint from opposite ends and race to see who can bring their flag home the fastest. Obviously, this is a fast, aggressive game and it is a game for lithe legs and light, fast bodies. Probably not a game for the dads.
You will often see players with special powers or magical properties in big games. The rules will always be very clear about how they play the game and when you can shoot at them.
“In speedball,” Steve says, “you get the proper angle on your opponent and lay down paint. Hyperball involves the same concept except with big field inflatables. In Hyperball, the proper angle sometimes lets you bounce balls off the inflatables and have them break on players hiding and shooting behind them.”
Open-field games include mostly handheld flag games such as Center Flag, Advance the Flag, Capture the Flag, Easter Egg Hunt, Speedball and Double/Triple Flag Relay. These games involve players positioned in equal opposing starting positions, and movement on the field is basically unrestricted. When you play one of these games, you have the most freedom to decide when and how you are going to approach the objective. Each player’s personal tendencies of attack or defense dictate how the game progresses.
An open field game with a specific objective means it will be well defended. This newbie better get the lead out or he’ll be painted like the Sunday comics.
Open-field games usually have a specific objective to draw you and your buddies into contact at key points. Having an objective or two (as opposed to simple elimination games) increases the likelihood that everybody is going to get involved in the game and not feel that they are simply wandering around lost or assigned to a task that is not important or fun. An objective helps the referees keep track of how the game is progressing, too, so they won’t accidentally end the game just before you make a break for the flag. An objective such as a flag makes it easier for referees to keep track of everyone because sooner or later you are going to gravitate toward it.
The safety briefing before every rec game. “Listen up, troops!” Whether you are a newbie or an experienced player, this is a time to really pay attention. Recall the rules and make sure you understand the boundaries and a field’s special conditions if you have not had time to walk it.
With the exception of speedball, these games usually run from 10 to 15 minutes, regardless of the number of people playing. This keeps players who are eliminated early from having to wait for a long time before they get to play again.
In Center Flag, a single flag is placed in the middle of the field. The object is for each team to capture this flag and advance it to the opponent’s starting location. If you get shot while you have the flag in your