Unorthodox Airsoft Tactics to Help You Win the War

This instructable is all about finding ways to win the war. Ways nobody would expect. As such, improvisation is a must. This guide will give you suggestions on unorthodox ways to give you advantages, but will also get you thinking on how you could improvise your own playing style to win. I will tell you now that this is not recommended for backyard airsoft players. Some of these certainly could be used for backyard playing, but it's mostly for hardcore players. That said, have some fun reading this. I'm going to invite Jakee117 to help out, so subscribe to both of us if you enjoyed this instructable.

This is one that's popular among snipers when there's a lack of support for them to shoot from, but I'm going to teach you how to adapt it for field use.

How it works: You will have two people. Out of the two, the one with the smaller gun will get in front and crouch. The person behind them will also crouch, resting the gun barrel on his buddy's shoulder for extra support. Ideally, the person should have the longer, heavier gun.

Sniper/spotter adaptation: The spotter usually has a smaller gun with a higher rate of fire. He will crouch down, with his gun at the ready. The sniper will then rest his gun on the spotter's back. Because of the difference in the guns, the sniper will take his time to get anybody at a set distance (depending on the quality of the guns, it would be, say, 125 or more feet away.) Using this example, the spotter would use his automatic/semi automatic weapon to take out anybody who got within 100 feet. The spotter is more likely to be hit because he's right up front. For optimal support for both people, the spotter will be supported by a low wall or other defence, and the sniper will rest on his back. This is good for a defensive position, when the sniper and spotter have been discovered.

Ambush or undiscovered position: You will have hopefully found a good place to hide. If not, you have to work fast. It doesn't matter who uses their buddy for support, but it should be the person with the longer gun. In this case, both people will communicate. You will both pick out one target, and shoot at the same time. If you're in a hidden or defended place, you both should be able to take out two targets or more before they've discovered your location, which is very effective for two people.

Capture the flag: When playing capture the flag, you can use this position. When you find the flag, you should automatically fall into this or some other defensive position. After you've looked around and found no enemies, the person in front (having the lighter gun) should run up and grab the flag. If necessary for a faster grab, the person running can leave their gun with their buddy, but this makes it harder for the buddy if they need to run.

Well, those are basic adaptations of the supported buddy position. However, this entire instructable should teach you how to improvise, and it includes things such as this.

It should look a little bit like the picture, but the spotter might have a gun.

Being a classic move in spy and action movies, A lot of people discredit this as an effective tactic. For the most part, it's not. However, there are times when it's acceptable, and sometimes even advisable, to use loud noises and other diversions.

When there's two entrances: Usually, this tactic is used if all or most of the enemy team is holed up in a very well-supported position. You will take a large majority of your team (leaving 1-3 people, depending on team size). That part of your team will rush into the most fortified part of the position. If you have grenades, have one or two people stand on either side of the doorway/entrance with grenades ready. Have them throw the grenades in, and the other part of that squad will run in screaming. The screaming part is optional, but it definitely helps to do more psychological damage. At this point, a lot of people would run in firing from the hip. But that's exactly what you don't want to do. You want to aim from the shoulder, and at least look like you're very trained and know how to take people out. This is all for psychological damage. When all or the majority of the enemy is turned towards your first squad, have your second squad of 1-4 people quietly come in the back. They should have targets picked out already, or at least have a general idea where the enemy is. They will come in and try to make their presence unkown, taking out the most heavily fortified sections of the base from behind. This may seem like a long process, but it should all go down in less than a minute, and that's if you're taking a long time. Expect heavy casualties on both sides.

With one entrance: This is a bit trickier than two, and it requires a greater flexibility. You want to lure out a couple of enemies at a time and take them out. After you've taken out a couple (20-30%), or by the time they start sending out greater numbers of people at once, you want to launch a full frontal attack. Depending on the commander, it will go two different ways. For example, I have two commanders that lead most of my games that are complete opposites. Dan is very patient, and he likes to hide and wait for the enemy to pass him and shoot them from behind. Cameron, on the other hand will follow the enemy until he can find them. He will take 3 people to try and take down 5, and before he shoots, he will shout some Clint Eastwood style catchphrase. If you are facing a Cameron, he will eventually decide to send out a large force to take out your "scouts". For this to work, you need a large number of your team hiding, and a couple more to play the role of scouts. Now, any Cameron's out there will send a sizable force to take out the scouts. Possibly the same number or more. At this point, your hidden men will take out the force he sends. A Cameron will send an even larger force at this point, probably most of his team. This is where the heaviest casualties will probably be on both sides. After this, take what's left and storm the room. Now, for a Dan (that is, a conservative commander who likes to be on the defence), your tactic will be a bit different. You will want to send a couple of people in to attack. It's most likely going to be heavily fortified, or at least have fields of fire that can hit almost anywhere. After attacking, you're going to want to pull out. They should send a couple of people to take care of them. If not, well, a diversion isn't going to work very well and you should spend some time planning a plan B.

"Lost Dog"; This tactic is somewhat applied in a couple of my games. You pretend you're lost from your team. Ideally, you know where the enemies are. You'll be about 1000 feet away from them (again, these are all ideal conditions) and hidden, or at least where they can't see you. You will then walk toward their position, shouting for your teammates to wait up. After 10-20 seconds, you'll just shout their names. The other team should walk in your direction, while the rest of your team flanks them from behind. At that point, it should be pretty easy.

Now, this is something that a lot of people tend not to do. Partly because of standard traing, and partly because the natural instinct is to take cover. However, there are certain times when you need to keep your head up instead of taking cover. For example, you and an enemy are both in fortified positions exchanging fire, just popping up and taking potshots at each other. When you realize this happens, you need to get down, just long enough to get the enemy to go down, and then get up and wait for the enemy. Keep your head up when they pop up the next time, because they won't be aiming as well as you should already be. They'll be firing trying to get your head down. And if you take 2-3 seconds to aim, you should get them before they can get you.

This works a lot of different ways, and is modeled after the two man machine gun crew that was often seen in World Wars I and II. Ideally, this is to be used in a defended position. You are probably outnumbered, and the enemy is conservative and sends either a few at a time, or they have a long open run to get to your base. Just so everybody understands better, I'm going to set it from a sniper/spotter situation. The spotter has a semi or fully automatic weapon, so he is going to play the gunner. The sniper will be his crewman. The sniper will reach into the spotter's vest and pull out a magazine. When the spotter runs out of ammo, the sniper will switch them out, put the empty magazine(s) in a separate pouch, and get a fresh magazine ready to go. Ideally, this cuts the reload time down to 2 seconds or less. Other duties of the sniper/ gun crew include winding any high capacity magazines, using a speed loader to load empty magazines in times of ceasefire, filling them with gas, etc. Now, it doesn't have to be sniper/spotter. There are a lot of times when it's better to do this. For instance, if your buddy's gun breaks down, or he has only a pistol. However, he can also be your eyes and ears. Reloading is a mindless task, during which he can watch your back.

Now, before you go and do this, know it could damage an electric gun, and it's generally not good to do. But if you don't care about ruining your gun, try this. When you are out of ammo, switch to an empty mag. When the enemy gets in view, open up fire. This will hopefully get their heads down for long enough for you to run away. I don't suggest this with spring guns, because they don't make much noise.

Kind of an add-on to step #5. Anyways, a key tactic to squad on squad games is; bluff. I can think of a quote I heard while playing Call of Duty 4 that sums it up pretty well. "Try to look unimportant -- they may be low on ammo".

Anyways, there is a fine art to bluffing. It's only to be used in certain situations. And it has to be done precisely right so it doesn't give itself away.

One situation in which it's good to use it in is when you're low on ammo. This should become a stealth mission, at least for a little while. The goal from here on out is to get close to the enemy without them knowing it. Use trees, or take side paths through separate rooms. The goal is to get within 20 feet of the enemy. It is true that if you get within 10 feet, you can yell "bang bang" to kill them or "surrender" to take them hostage. However, at this distance, you risk detection. At this point, take note you should try it with a sizable squad. Preferably at the very least 3 men for every 4 of theirs.Spread out in a 120-180 degree semi circle when you're about 20 feet behind them. This ensures that, at least in their minds, they can't run without being shot. And even if you're low on ammo, you should have enough to shoot any who try to run, or shoot one to make an example. At this time, you are going to take hostage as many as you feel you can. The rest you will kill (it's usually acceptable to say bang or mimic a knife to kill them.). At this point, you are going to try to harvest ammo from them. There are a couple of ways you can do this.

1) depending on your hostage rules, they may have to comply. Just order them to give you ammo.

2) demand they give you the clips to their guns, so they can't try and shoot. Empty the BB's into your clips.

3) use them to negotiate to get BB's (potentially risky, but these turn into fun LAWSIM games).

Maybe you don't need ammo. What do you do with them now? You can kill them off, or use them to negotiate a safe window, food, water, etc. etc. See the next step for more details.

If you're anything like me, any game can turn into a hostage/ terrorist match. Here's a quick story, just to whet your appetite.

I was playing on a team with my friend Dan. The other team was Cameron and Tyler, and they were supposed to protect Zach (the VIP) while eliminating us. Zach was unarmed. Tyler had only a spring pistol, because his G36 had run out of battery. Cameron had his electric M14. So, we let the VIP team head out into the woods with a 5 minute head start (our preferred style). Dan and I walk around for a while. While walking, I see Cameron with only a spring pistol. Apparently he had traded it for his quite huge M14 in order to scout. He jumped out, looked at me, looked to the left and right, and ran off into a nearby patch of woods. Dan didn't see him. So we walk to the Northwest (we were facing Cameron, looking North, and he ran to the East). When we get to the edge of his horse fences, there is some tall grass. We hear talking, and hide behind some convenient tall grass. Adrenaline pumping, Dan and I stand up at the same time with out weapons aimed. I had only a CO2 pistol at the time, and he had an Electric M16. It was Tyler and Zach. Zach was unarmed, and Tyler had Cameron's M14. Unfortunately, he had only one magazine, and the gun had a bad magazine catch. It had fallen out in the woods without him knowing. So they were unarmed. We seized the M14 and made them lay face down. Sure enough, Cameron came around the corner and shot wildly his one shot at Dan. It was 3 shot kill, so I don't know what he was thinking. Anyways, at that point, I shot the hostage (also the VIP) and we won the game.

Now, I do expect you to take some things from that story:
1) Any game can turn into a hostage match, or have hostages involved.
2) The VIP should never be left alone, especially unarmed
3) Shooting randomly in hostage situations doesn't usually work (Cameron tried it yet again when Zach was tied up in a ditch. Me and Dan were behind shrubs on either side. Cameron came though the opening blasting rounds off. Dan and I were pelted, as was Zach (the hostage) AND one of Cameron's teammates).
4) The hostage takers are in charge, unless you have an extremely well organized effort to take them all out at the same time.

Now, proper hostage taking procedure is as such:

• You encounter the other person within 10 feet, however it may be.
• You yell "surrender" and they are now your hostage.
• From this point, you search them (or yell "search" and count to 10. They must turn over everything they have. If they don't, and try to use a hidden weapon against you, it's not counted and they are

immediately out for X number of minutes)

• You make them safety their guns, take out the magazines, and fire their weapons to clear the barrels. Depending on the number of people and guns on either side, you might forcibly seize all weapons and use them against their enemies, or just hold them. Depending on your rules.
• Depending on your already set hostage rules, you demand they hand over clips, ammo, food, water, etc. That you may need.
• They are to lay down with arms and legs spread, face down or face up (your choice).
• At this point, if you have anything to tie them with, do it now.
• (optional) be humane. If they're thirsty, give them water. Let them shift position if they're uncomfortable. Just don't be too lenient, or give them anything that they could use to attack you. Maintaining a proper balance will make them less likely to revolt, will make them want to play with you more, and is all around good sportsmanship. Of course, if you have to be tough for RP purposes, or feel you deserve it because you managed to capture them, that's understood too. Just don't beat anybody up.

The most important part of any airsoft war is to have fun. These strategies just make it a bit easier, because let's face it, nothing puts a smile on your face like unloading BB's into the enemy.

Ending notes:
I'm releasing this because these tactics aren't standard and pretty much can't be found all over the place. Each of these was the result of an epiphany I had. Therefore, I might add more, as I might get more epiphanies.

Also, I may have used the word "he" instead of "they". This isn't because I don't think girls can play airsoft, but because I imagined all of the people on my team when I thought of these tactics. And we don't have a single girl on the team. Mostly because some of the members are rude and/or sexist, but anyways...

Thanks for reading, and expect more to be out soon.