When you play Capture the Flag, each team begins with a flag of the opponent’s color hanging from in their starting location. The flag is hung or stood up by the referee (who is neutral) to ensure that it is plainly visible and accessible. The objective for each team is to attempt to shoot its way to the enemy’s starting position, seize their flag and return it to their own home base. While this is going on, your team members have to protect the flag at your base. If you get shot while holding a flag, you’re out and that flag is placed in plain sight on a nearby bunker or tree. Players on the opposing team may not touch the flag they are defending at any time during the game.
Advance the Flag is similar to Capture the Flag except that each team begins with its own flag and has to advance it to the opponent’s base. It’s an important distinction! Players holding the flag are NOT required to keep it visible, but if you get shot while you are holding the flag, you must place it openly on a nearby bunker or tree. You can’t touch the opposing team’s flag at any time.
You might want to keep a referee in sight. It won’t help your team if you plant the flag squarely in your enemy’s camp and there is no referee there to signal victory!
A Double Flag Relay actually involves four flags, two of each team’s color. One of each color flag is placed on central bunkers or at known locations. The objective is for your team to capture your own flags and return them to your base, but prevent the enemy team from doing likewise. Of course, you can’t touch the enemy team’s flags. (When the number of players exceeds 15 on each side or everyone is playing particularly aggressively, the head referee can opt to put out a third set of flags to ensure a prolonged and hard-fought game.)
Whatever game you play, the average recreational field will give you a lot of looks, bunkers in every shape and size and combination of materials. Maximize whatever cover they allow and watch for targets of opportunity.
The extra cost of a big game pays for special effects and structures. A lot of paint on the tower will make these defenders keep their heads down, but attackers will have to storm the fort at great risk to themselves.
The Easter Egg Hunt involves placing three or four different colored flags on the field before the game. Each color is given a designated point value and placed according to its value. For instance, the more points a flag is worth, the closer it is usually placed to the center of the field, while lesser-value flags are place closer to the team bases for easier capture. For example, four blue flags worth one point are placed two-to-a-side near each base. Four red flags worth two points each are placed two-to-aside, but closer to the center while two yellow flags worth three points each are placed on bunkers that are sure to be hotly contested near the center of the field.
If you capture a flag, you must return it to your base and place it visibly to be counted for points. Usually, the rules say you can only carry one flag at a time. Once a flag is captured, the player who picked it up is the one who has to return it. You can’t hand off a flag to another player. If you get shot while you’re holding a flag, that flag is out of play and you have to carry it off the field. And yes, you can capture flags from the enemy’s base and return them to your own base, but only one at a time.
You get into a game of Speedball usually when a limited number of players is available, say seven or less to a team. Typically, it is a fairly basic hunt-and-shoot elimination game within specific boundaries, the object being to put paint on all your opponents before they put paint on you. It’s fast and it’s easy, and played every now and then, it’s fun!
ATTACK-AND-DEFEND GAMES
Attack-and-Defend games include any game in which one team is confined to a limited defensive area and the other team must accomplish an offensive objective within that area. These games are lots of fun and help you learn teamwork, because each team has a clearly defined role and must adjust their play accordingly. Because there are only a limited number of games in this category – of course, you can switch roles, attacking one time and defending the next – you usually won’t start a day with an Attack-and-Defend game.
Attack the Fort is a fun, simple game and a lot of paint flies through the air in 10 minutes. One team is on defense and enters the fort or a large bunker while the attacking team starts at a location out of sight of the fort and far enough away to allow for any “roamers” to disperse. One player on the attacking team is given a flag tied to a nerf-ball. The objective is for the attackers to work their way to the fort and get the flag into the tower section of the fort, while the defending team tries to prevent this from happening. Safety is a concern in this game, because a lot of close range action is to be expected toward the end of the game, especially if the attackers rush the fort. So, watch out with Attack the Fort. You’re about to mix it up!
In Attack the Fort, the attacker’s flag may be handed off to another player at any time. So, if you get shot holding the flag, you remain on the field as a neutral player, perhaps with your hand and the flag in the air (try that for 5 to 10 minutes if you think you have a lot of stamina), until one of your teammates can take it from you. (This is actually quite practical because it prevents your flag from being dropped and lost.)
Defenders begin the game in the fort and must remain there for the duration of the game with the exception of a few designated as “roamers,” usually one or maybe two players each game. Roamers are the only players on the defending team allowed to move freely outside of the fort, although they too must begin the game inside the fort. If a roaming player is eliminated, that player may not be replaced. A roamer may return to the fort anytime though (as long as they are not hit), allowing another player to become a roamer.
In The Bunny Game the “bunny” is placed on the ground against the wall of a fort or bunker, plainly visible and not blocked. Neither team may touch or move the bunny during play, because the attacking team’s goal is to assassinate the bunny by shooting it in the lens of its goggles . For 10 minutes, the defending team tries to prevent the attackers from killing the bunny. The defenders are restricted in their movements around the bunny while the attacking team begins at its base. Attackers may use the full range of the field, while the defenders must remain close to the bunny for the length of the game.
Of course, calling it “The Bunny Game” doesn’t give it much of a macho image, but this game situation is very popular both among newbies and paintball veterans.
“Hit! Hit! I’m out!” When you’re hit, raise your marker over your head, shout out that you are hit and head for the nearest exit. In a big game, you won’t sit out very long.
MULTIPLE-LIFE GAMES
This category of games includes Domination, Predator and President, and they run in semi-open-field fashion but with each side being defined as either defending or attacking. Defenders are typically limited to an area inside which they must prevent the attacking team from accomplishing an objective (similar to The Bunny Game). Beyond normal field boundaries, the attacking team is not typically restricted in its movement.
In these games, attackers are granted an additional life. This means that when an attacking player is eliminated, he may return to base and then start again, but only one time. If the same player gets mushed again, then he’s out of that game permanently. Defenders only get one life. Sorry.
The attacking team obviously has an advantage because its members have multiple lives (essentially giving them double the players), but they are playing against the clock as well as their opponent. If time expires and the attacking team has not