4. Basic Paintball Games to Play

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While most paintball games work on the idea of eliminating the opposing team, there are different types of games within that premise. The three most common variations are: -

• Capture the Flag - an attempt to capture the opposing team’s flag from a specific location while retaining your own. When caught it must be displayed prominently in either the winning team’s or the opposing teams flag station.

• Elimination - simply trying to get all the players of the opposing team out.

• King of the Hill - the attempt to capture a specific location and hold it against the opposing team. There can be more than one location to capture and two or more teams may participate. The team that holds the location for the longest time/s wins.

The variations above can be played in a variety of location types that gives them their specific names…

• Woodsball can be played using either of the first two variations viz, Capture the Flag or Elimination. As the name suggests, it is played in a forest-type location. This can be natural such as a National Park, or private property, or it can be a man-made forest created by a commercial enterprise. Woodsball is typically a longer lasting game due to the larger area, where there are good places for ambushes etc. It’s great for players, but onlookers are disadvantaged due to the amount and roughness of the terrain.

• Speedball is a faster game, being played out on a smaller field with man-made obstacles. It is the more popular as those who do not participate can still watch and easily see what is happening. Players can also see the opposing team and their goals at all times of the play. It is popular for indoor settings.

• Tournament Paintball players usually play a form of speedball rather than Woodsball, since there are many spectators. Having man-made obstacles enables each end of the course to be set up to be exactly the same, thus eliminating unfair advantages due to the terrain. It also means that referees can see easily enough to make the correct calls.

• Stock Class is a form of paintball wherein the equipment used must be limited to that available only in the 1980’s. In other words the markers must use a pump action and the amount of ammunition for each player is limited.

• Reball or T-ball is played indoors with ammunition that does not contain paint. This saves a lot of cleaning up. Reball ammunition was first devised for practicing paintball, as the ammunition is reusable.