Attrition & Demoralization
By: Squeegie

 

Attrition in a nutshell

From even as far back as Roman times, attrition was a tactic used to help prevent the loss of friendly troops in hostile situations. Many times, instead of fighting head on with a force that is several times larger or better equipped than their own, the armies would attack the soldiers supply lines. Since humans need provisions to functions, all they had to do was wait until they all starved or became to weak to fight. Alot easier and far less costly than a long drawn out battle. As effective as it was, it really doesn't transpose into paintball. Or does it? How many times have you traded paint with another player, only to hear his gun run out of air? In that instant that the gun burped, he went from threat to the paintball equivalent of Bambi. Player like to shoot paint. That's why markers are capable of spitting out 13 to 15 rounds a second. Tying up players and making them spend ammunition and air on you will wear down their defenses quicker than yours. If you can make them burn just half of his paint, you already have an advantage. Most rec-ball player carry no more than 800 rounds. With a fast cycling gun, it doesn't take long to burn up all your paint. No paint = no threat. You can entice players into wasting paint by bouncing between trees in the backfield, or firing a single round in their direction while they are out of range. It really doesn't take much to pick a firefight. The trick is to make him shoot, and shoot alot. Use those resources, make them leave the field to get more paint and air. It less work for you, and may make it easier to reach your objective with enough ammo & players to take it successfully. 

 

Demoralization

In a scenario game in Florida, morale came into play in a big way. One side was really putting a hurting on the other guys for most of the first day. It was so bad that teams began defecting to the other side in droves. Nobody likes to lose. Especially when you are losing on so many different levels. It was a bad situation that our side capitalized on to make it even worse. The end result was 3 teams doing more damage to their own side than we had done the previous day. When morale is up, you can get a team to do almost anything. They will hike to the farthest corners of the field on suicide missions if you ask them to. They don't care because they are having fun. Take that same team after losing 4 or 5 missions in a row, and add in a few really good spankings in a few firefights, and you have a team that just wants to go back to camp and relax.  This is probably one of the most deviant tactics to date. Breaking a persons will to fight. This can be accomplished through several different ways. You can spread propaganda such as the general being assassinated, or that all the points from the last 10 missions were removed because of technicalities. Little things like this make people just want to go and play, not do anything that would gain them point values. Concentrating on destroying the command bunkers helps as well. This prevents missions from being run and really puts a damper on the game play. If the bunker is taken out near dusk, most players won't return onto the field until well past the usual 1/2 hour mark. This makes it easier on your side to move freely and gain points. It should be noted that demoralization tactics should not be used at the expense of individuals or if it ruins game play. It is similar to trash talking the other side. A little bit is fun, too much is arrogance.